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This is just a weekend project I decided to make just because I wanted to prove how easily it could be done. The idea of course came from Hollywood where all the rich people often seem to have installed clap switches.

As explained in the video, this is accomplished using two opamps, one as a comparator and one to amplify the electret microphone signals. There is also a cap in series and a resistor in parallel to ground in order to detect and hold the peaks. The comparator outputs a nice square wave which makes it heaps easier to process the signals in the microcontroller.

Anyway, if anyone has further question feel free to ask them and I will answer them in the comments field.

The C# program is in the very early stage but has enough to display the webcam images and communicate with the microcontroller through USART interface. Even though the microcontroller software is very far from finished too, it still controls the two servos where the webcam is mounted(you can hear them moving in the background as I control them from the computer). The video doesnt show the actual servo/webcam rig, so I added some pictures of that too.

Here are the full schematic as well as the current PCB layout for my CabinControl project. I have not yet sent the boards for manufacturing, so there may still come adjustments. If so I will post them here.

I haven’t really given an in-depth explanation of the system overview nor the schematic simply because I don’t know if anybody would be interested. If I get questions in the comments I will answer them to the best of my ability :-)

EDIT: I added an Eagle3D output version of the board. It’s not exactly flawless in its 3D representation, but nevertheless.

One of my current projects is what I’ve decided to call CabinControl. This is a circuit that will be installed on a cabin (hence the name) in order to remotely control webcam, cabin temperature etc, as well as observe sensor inputs like temperatures, motion around the cabin, snow depth, daylight brightness and so on. See the figure below for a complete list of interfaces. Currently I am working mostly on the HW side of things, trying to get the PCB design completed and get the board manufactured. I guess I will upload the current PCB design some time soon. When I finish the circuit and board layout I have a lot of coding to do both for the microcontroller (C) as well as for the PC (C#).